cmonk

Hey tourers!

My girlfriend and I am planning a trip to tour Spain from September 09 to January 2010. We have received note from a HelpExchange host, allowing us to stay with them, on their organic farm, as long as we'd like. We therefore have the security of room-and-board at a farmstead.

Our traveling stipulations include me needing internet access a few days a week, for a total of about 20 hours/wk. I run my business online, and need access to keep things square.

I currently ride a Trek Pilot 1.2, and love it. I have a rear rack and Ortleib panniers, but no room for a front rack on the carbon fork. Kristen has no touring bike, so we are looking for her.

Do you think I need to upgrade to a LHT or a Trek 520 in order to ensure I have enough carrying capacity? What would you recommend for her? She rides a 56cm road bike now.

The host is in Maceal, Spain - south eastern area. We are interested in learning about cultures, traveling, working on organic farms, and seeing the sights. We'd rather stay at a location and work, learn about their lives (on Organic farms!).

We're on WarmShowers, CouchSurfing (and have surfed together 1x in Miami, great time), HelpX, and WWOOFing ([Willing Workers on Organic Farms] in the US. We need to buy-in to Spain/Europe's WWOOFgroup). I can't see us do much more than 75 miles a day, unless we really had a solid place to go, and a deadline.

Our time is totally free, and we can do whatever we want. The host in Maceal has internet access, and I'll be bringing my laptop. As long as we can get online and eat some organic foods, we'll be VERY happy!


If you have any insight, please share. We need to get the bikes soon, in order to outfit them and get our bodies ready.


Thanks for all your help!


-- Casey

Gordon P

Well you will definitely have to do a pub crawl in Mojacar! More importantly you will be very close to the Trans-Andalusia Mtb trail so you may factor that in when you buy new bikes. This area is dry and mountainous and a trekking bike may be more suitable.

cmonk

Thanks for the tip.

We're thinking of both having Trek Pilots, and she is going to carry her gear on a BOB Yak or a TW-Trailer. What about shipping the bikes over to Spain from the US - should we get a bag to do it, or a disposable box? I don't know where to begin to look for that stuff.


Thanks!

Gordon P

I'm not in the states, so I'm not sure about shipping bikes from there but there was a recent post on that topic so you may want to do a search. Boxes can be found at your local bike shop for free and if you do a search a bike forum member did a post on how to package a bike the right way. I used a BoB trailer on my trip last year and there are advantages and disadvantages - shipping it is one of the disadvantages.

Here is the link to the Trans-Andalus route it is near the top of my list for my next international tour.
https://www.transandalus.org/

cmonk

Things are coming along well. We've picked up our Brooks to break in, cycling computers, and will have her bike in the next 2 weeks.

The trailer is going to be the TW-Trailer, for folding and ability to train well.

Does anyone stash their bikes while on a tour? Say - you wanted to go to the big city, would you stash them somewhere out-of-sight for an evening? What else would you do?

ebg

A lot of the small hotels in rural Spain will store your bike for you while you take a side trip. The TransAndalus takes you through some of the best areas you could ever hope to see from a bike, with plenty to do in the small towns and villages where each stage ends. However, you could also easily take side trips to Seville, Granada, Cordoba, Cadiz, etc by using a train or bus. We just came back from 3 months on the trail and think it was the trip of a lifetime. All the information you need is on the website Gordon mentioned above.
Elaine

garcilancho

Hi,I live in Madrid,if you need to store your bikes for a few days no problem,drop me a line..

cmonk

Thanks for your help!